e
remained buried in his book Till they reached -----, at dusk. As he
returned it, he offered his services in procuring a carriage or
attending to luggage; but Mrs. Carroll, with much dignity of aspect,
informed him that her servants would attend to those matters, and,
bowing gravely, he vanished into the night.

As they rolled away to the hotel, Debby was wild to run down to the
beach whence came the solemn music of the sea, making the twilight
beautiful. But Aunt Pen was too tired to do anything but sup in her
own apartment and go early to bed; and Debby might as soon have
proposed to walk up the great Pyramid as to make her first appearance
without that sage matron to mount guard over her; so she resigned
herself to pie and patience, and fell asleep, wishing it were to-morrow.

At five, a. m., a nightcapped head appeared at one of the myriad
windows of the ----- Hotel, and remained there as if fascinated by the
miracle of sunrise over the sea. Under her simplicity of character and
girlish merriment Debby possessed a devout spirit and a nature full of
the real poetry of life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood its
sweetest charm, and made her what she was. As she looked out that
summer dawn upon the royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty
hopes and longings faded out of sight, and her young face grew luminous
with thoughts too deep for words. Her day was happier for that silent
hour, her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted her like
beautiful strong angels, and left a blessing when they went. The smile
of the June sky touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger on
her cheek, and in her eye arose a light kindled by the shimmer of that
broad sea of gold; for Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave
her beauty, when she offered love. How long she leaned there Debby did
not know; steps from below roused her from her reverie, and led her
back into the world again. Smiling at herself, She stole to bed, and
lay wrapped in waking dreams as changeful as the shadows, dancing on
her chamber-wall.

The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some two hours later, was the
signal to be "up and doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the
hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard her in the light of
an animated pin-cushion, as she performed the toilet-ceremonies with an
absorbed aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense of the
solemnity of the occasion.

"Now, Mad